Trump declares opioid epidemic 'national emergency'

US President Donald Trump has declared the country’s opioid drugs epidemic a “national emergency,” a designation that would offer states more federal resources and power to combat the crisis.

“The opioid crisis is an emergency, and I’m saying officially, right now, it is an emergency,” Trump said at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

“It’s a national emergency. We’re going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis,” he said. “There’s never been what’s happened to this country over the last four or five years.”

In March, Trump appointed a commission to combat the public health crisis. The Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis told Trump last week that declaring a national emergency would be an immediate help in combating the ongoing epidemic.

“Our citizens are dying. We must act boldly to stop it,” the commission, headed by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, said…